Back to BSN Glossary: Lord Jesus Christ
Remember that ancient writers produced uniformly-sized letters. That is, there was no upper and lower case, so there was no capitalization. Of course, that is not at all the case in modern translations. Capitalization matters for us.
In the vast majority of English Old Testaments, the word formed by the letters l-o-r-d show up in one of three forms:
- lord – when referring to a human in an especially respectful way – be it a king, dignitary, or someone otherwise deemed worthy of such deference.
- Lord – when referring to God.
- LORD – when referring personally to the God of Israel, whose Hebrew name was YHWH.
Little more needs to be said about the first form.
The second form – “Lord” – is simple enough. Hebrew had a distinct word for addressing God as Lord: ADONAI. Consequently, in the vast majority of English Old Testaments, “Lord” is simply a translation of ADONAI.
The third form is the one that requires significant explanation. All caps “LORD” in an English Old Testament represents the Hebrew expression of God’s personal name: YHWH.
YHWH is the answer God gave at the burning bush when Moses asked the following question:
Exodus 3:13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”
“YHWH” could reasonably be translated into English in any of the following ways:
- “I AM”
- “I AM WHO I AM”
- “HE WHO IS”
- “HE WHO CAUSES TO BE”
And these are not the only possible translations – just some of the most popular ones. Probably the most commonly encountered and widely recognized is the first one: “I AM.”
Moses was the first writer of a biblical text. YHWH would turn out to be not only the most frequently occurring personal name in the Hebrew Old Testament; but also its most frequently occurring content word!
It’s not that surprising that God’s personal name would achieve this status in the Old Testament, but there is a great surprise associated with it. During the time between the Old Testament and the New – about 400 years – the Jews somehow came to the conclusion that they’d be more reverent to God if they stopped saying His name out loud. Instead, they would use a substitute word – usually, ADONAI. Therefore, whenever the text showed YHWH, they would read aloud as if it said ADONAI.
This can be confusing, so let me summarize. When reading an English translation of the Old Testament…
- “LORD” means God’s name: YHWH, which means “I am.”
- “Lord” means God’s title: “ADONAI,” which means “Lord.”
It just so happens that “the angel of the LORD” always appears just that way. He’s “the messenger of His name.”
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